Monday, June 20, 2011

Lawmaker faces gun charges

State representative Frederick Wintle, from Garland, Maine was arrested after allegedly pointing a handgun at a man at point-blank range in a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot in Waterville, Maine. The 58-year-old Republican legislator is charged with felony criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
Police reports indicate that Wintle approached a man in the parking lot and starting talking about an infant who had recently died and how he was looking for the mother's drug dealer. Wintle then pulled a .22-caliber handgun out of his pants and pointed it at the man. "I did not engage him in any way," said the victim, "All I knew was there was a loaded gun pointed at me from a couple feet away, pointed right at my midsection."Wintle is a law abiding citizen with no criminal record. Since this incident occurred Wintle has been barred from entering the State House and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

2 comments:

I know you don't like it when I point out the obvious but how can a person who was breaking the law by carrying a firearm without a permit be considered "law abiding"?

Come on you can do better than this?

Wouldn't a better title be "uncaught criminal"?

I guess you wouldn't like that since the average person commits 3 felonies a day, eh?

So, let's take it at face value and discuss the issue.

Capitol Police Chief Russell Gauvin said some people at the Capitol reported Wintle had been acting strangely, and police officers periodically checked in on Wintle's Labor committee meeting Friday.

Capitol Police, a branch of the Department of Public Safety, is a law enforcement agency responsible for the Capitol complex.

"There were members of the public and members of the Legislature who were concerned about Rep. Wintle's behavior this week," Gauvin said. "There's nothing criminal, nothing outlandish that was quantifiable, but there were some concerns expressed."

I notice you don't focus on the obvious mental condition of the criminal here but just the firearm.

Wouldn't more violence, more injuries be prevented if we had an effective mental health system in this country?

Second, how to you stop people from slipping a cog and doing something dangerous?

Would you be comfortable locking up anyone who was acting different or outside of the norm -- just to possibly keep the public safe?

Do you want to require a person to turn in her/his firearms if people are uncomfortable with their behavior?

Every criminal was once a law abiding citizen........until they committed a crime.

The entries on this blog involve people who are legally eligible to purchase and possess guns. These are people whom the gun lobby would refer to as "law abiding citizens." It is the contention of the gun lobby that stricter gun laws would only hurt these law abiding citizens.